On being a Luddite and living with a robot vacuum cleaner called Alice

 
I recoiled at how technology increasingly permeates every aspect of our lives, even though by way of a personal admission we employ a robot Hoover, ‘Alice’, as we affectionately named her, who appears to have free will as I watch her smooth her way gracefully across our carpet.

But back to the article which was entertaining and instructive but left me feeling like a Luddite; a reactionary to this further encroaching into one’s privacy. In these days, as we gawk stupefied at the newest sweeties on display in technologies shop window we are advised that this or that newest of innovation is a ‘must have’; get your credit cards out goes the sales pitch and I am tempted but the pull of the Luddite in me is stronger and I resist just as the Luddites resisted in the UK first in Nottingham, then in Yorkshire and subsequently throughout England in a regional wide UK rebellion lasting from 1811- 1816. The Luddite movement was inspired by, surprise, surprise, a Mr Ned Ludd; he was the movements’ hero as his _­ anonymous acolytes sabotaged factory equipment under the cover of night.

Now I am getting up a defensive head of steam up, for the appraisal of Luddite in its modern incarnation judging by my friend’s comments is more often than not, mocking. Luddite is usually a derogatory term. But in maligning Luddites such people are employing a fictional version of a historical movement, for the Luddites weren't technophobes, they were labor strategists and successful ones at that. After all the Luddites were sabotaging machines at a time in the UK when nascent trade-unionism was suppressed. So machine-breaking brought the factory to a halt, and was a functional and effective substitute for striking. So there!

Having got that off my chest the term Luddite rests more easily with me and I feel there will be no need to attend ‘Luddites Anonymous’

Now as I watch Alice smoothly vacuum her way across our carpets, independent, unaided and perhaps a tad smug as she backtracks, reverses, circles, I wonder why do I think of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as I watch her free style manoeuvring (I am being tongue in cheek in case any  body thinks I am serious).